Kerala Edu Minister's tweet on NCERT textbook revisions signals state’s reluctance to implement changes

NCERT's decision to rationalize the textbooks has not been taken in a positive way by the opposition leaders and education ministers in non-BJP states.

Several opposition leaders have criticized centre for key deletions in NCERT textbooks including passages on Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin Nathuram Godse, the 1948 ban on RSS, and dropping of 2002 Gujarat riots.

Amongst the critics, Kerala Education Minister and CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty said the state would not accept the central government’s attempt to present history “in a distorted manner”. “Preparation of the textbook with a narrow-minded political approach cannot be justified academically,” said the minister.

In a tweet by @CPIMKerala , states, "Making textbooks that do not do justice to the facts is to deny history."

The state education minister said that Kerala government will not accept the Union government's Policy of distorting history in textbooks.

Last year when the decision was taken by the NCERT to rationalise the textbooks in order to bring down the burden of syllabus from School's students, the Kerala government was amongst the few states who were not in favor to remove the portions about the Mughal Empire and Gujarat riots from the NCERT textbooks of higher secondary courses.

The Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) then, after reviewing the decision of the NCERT, had told the state government that that there is no need to implement it in Kerala.